New Government Tobacco Control Plan Tackles Smoking and Mental Health

(The TCCC has worked closely with many Mental Health Trusts assessing their policies and helping them go smokefree)

Media release on behalf of the Mental Health and Smoking Partnership:

The Mental Health and Smoking Partnership has welcomed publication of the Government’s new Tobacco Control Plan for England [1] for the first time prioritising reducing smoking among people with a mental health condition.

Although smoking rates have fallen significantly over the last 20 years, they have remained stubbornly high among those with poor mental health. Just over two in five adults with a serious mental illness smoke, and it is estimated that around one in three cigarettes are currently smoked by someone with a mental health condition [2].

The Plan makes clear that action is needed across all mental health services stating: “The majority of mental health provision takes place in the community… shared ownership and responsibility in the local health and social care system is essential…”

New commitments in the plan on smoking and mental health include:

Comprehensive smokefree policies, including integrated treatment for tobacco dependence, in all mental health services by 2018

PHE and NHS England will develop materials to support mental health trusts to implement NICE Guidance on helping people using mental health services to quit smoking

Provide access to training for all health professionals on how to help patients – and particularly patients in mental health services – to quit smoking

Identify and rectify gaps in data on smoking and mental health which show prevalence, trends and the level of stop smoking support provided in order to have a comprehensive picture of the problem.

To work to integrate stop smoking support with addiction services and services for people with mental health conditions

PHE will work with the Mental Health and Smoking Partnership to consider the evidence on how to reduce the prevalence of smoking among people with mental health conditions.

The Plan has adopted recommendations made in the 2016 report on smoking and mental health, “The Stolen Years”, published by Action on Smoking and Health in collaboration with many mental health and public health organisations. [3]

Commenting on the new plan, Professor Paul Burstow, Chair of the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust and co-chair of the Mental Health and Smoking Partnership said:

“I’m delighted to see the emphasis in the new Tobacco Control Plan on the need to bring down rates of smoking among people with a mental health condition, and help close the shocking gap in life expectancy between people with a mental health condition and the rest of the population.

“As the Chair of an NHS Trust, I am also pleased that the Government wants to ensure that staff are appropriately trained and that they are able to link patients to the high quality support people will need to quit. The Mental Health and Smoking Partnership looks forward to working with Government to take this agenda forward.

Professor Ann McNeill of the UK Centre for Tobacco Control and Alcohol Studies and co-chair of the Mental Health and Smoking Partnership added:

“It is a real step forward for public health policy that the Government is committed to cut smoking rates among people with mental health conditions. For all the progress we have made in the general population, some of the most vulnerable groups in our society – including those with mental health conditions – are still being left behind, and this contributes greatly to health inequality.

“I am particularly pleased to see that the commitment to smokefree settings is not just about putting up more signs and notices, but to implementing NICE guidance and providing staff with the training and patients with the support they need to quit. Now the Government must make the resources available to put this Plan into full effect – targets and objectives by themselves are not sufficient.”